Matt and Cat\'s Isle of Wight Eating Out Guide

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Summer menu at the Seaview Hotel, 2023

The Seaview Hotel has been one of our top recommendations for year-round quality dining for many years.  And it’s not just us – the hotel has two AA rosettes for food and was this year awarded the keenly contested IW Chamber of Commerce​ hospitality business of the year award.  So…

Se7en at the Royal Hotel, Ventnor

It’s been an age since we had one of those dinners in which each course delights and confounds our expectations. However, we knew that if we were going to experience food like that anywhere again, then it would be at Ventnor’s Royal Hotel – location of so many memorable meals…

Smoking Lobster, Ventnor – Takeaway

Lordy! The landscape of the takeaway has changed enormously since the arrival of COVID-19. We were quite happy with our intermittent curry, the occasional Friday fish and chips and perhaps a cheeky chain burger. But, as the virus rumbles interminably on, so do our stomachs – for something more adventurous….

Bluebells at Briddlesford Takeaway

One of the nicest things to come out of the COVID-19 lockdown is that some of our favourite Island restaurants have started getting their takeaway vibe going. We love to eat out, but the next best thing for us has been enjoying a great meal at our own dining table,…

Electric dreams and afternoon tea

As you know, we review restaurants. This website is full of our opinions on Isle of Wight eateries. That’s why you’re here. But that doesn’t mean we don’t like to write about other nice things. Cat is always daydreaming about the future – her 1970s interpretation of it, brought to…

Something Yummy Supper Club

Long-standing Matt and Cat followers might recall our dining club, which ran for several years. Members could enjoy discounts at various selected Island eateries, but the buzz for us was hosting our monthly dinners. We have made some long-standing friends of our dining club members and many of them, too,…

Gurt Cook Off 2019

One regularly asked question of us is, “Do you get free food?”. And our, oft-spoken answer is “No, not really.” All the food we review is paid for. Even the meals we write about for the Isle of Wight County Press are paid for out of our hard-earned. The paper…

Cycling Gourmand electric bike adventure

Recently, we were asked by the lovely people at the Seaview Hotel to help curate a series of bike rides which would take in some of our favourite eateries in the north-east Wight. And so the Cycling Gourmand was created. However, these are not just any bike rides. The Seaview…

A visit to Godshill Orchards apricot orchard

Hopefully, you’ll have been enjoying locally-grown Godshill cherries this time of year – we certainly have. And it was a tweet we posted from the Southsea Food Festival that led us to an invitation to have a look around the orchard’s other enterprise – apricots. The apricot orchard is tucked…

Southsea Food Festival 2019

In what is now a regular and extremely popular event in Hampshire’s calendar, the Southsea Food Festival returned last weekend – and, once again, we popped across the Solent to join in the foodie fun. Thanks to Wightlink for the free ride! The weather gods were smiling down on the…

Vegan omakase supper, Stripped

Matt and Cat held another sell-out event at Ventnor’s Stripped restaurant on 22 June 2019, with an even bigger challenge for the kitchen team – twelve courses of vegan food! With nearly 500 individual dishes served up this was a logistical tour de force and a magnificent meal all round….

Artisan Sourdough Workshop at Tiny Homes Holidays

Bread is the stuff of life, or so they say. Others might disagree, preferring internet karma, getting passionate about politics, or simply chocolate as their life fuel. However, come the zombie apocalypse (or Brexit, whichever arrives sooner), we may all have to bake our own bread over flint-sparked flames, using…